Amidst the many challenges faced by many North American fathers in their efforts to maintain some semblance of meaningful involvement in the lives of their children, six months ago the American Psychological Association issued their guidelines for Psychological Practice for Boys and Men, 13 years in the making and consolidating 40 years of empirical research, mainly from a feminist standpoint. The guidelines are based on the view that “traditional masculinity” and a masculine sense of entitlement is the root cause of men’s mental health problems, not structural factors such as misguided family laws and policies and mean-spirited cultural responses to men-at-risk.
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I add my voice to the chorus denouncing the ideological bias of the guidelines as profoundly anti-male, as essentially a denigration of men and misandrist. The authors of the guidelines report exploit narrow definitions of masculinity for their own ends. The view that violent and abusive behaviors are engrained in cultural prescriptions of traditional masculinity and reflected in masculine character is not based on the lived experiences of men and boys with mental health issues.
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In sum, the APA Guidelines for Psychological Practice for Boys and Men contain many useful directions for practice but should be treated with much caution.
Read full, original post: Toxic Masculinity or Cultural Misandry?
